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"The Buddhist monk Ashva-ghosha composed his elegant biographical and religious poem in the first or second century CE, probably in the city of Ayodhya. Importantly, this is the earliest extent text of the Sanskrit genre of "literature as a fine art" (kavya)." "Fourteen cantos take the reader from the birth of Siddhartha, the future Buddha, to his Awakening when he discovered the truths of Buddhism. The remainder of the composition, lost in the original Sanskrit, is here summarized from its Chinese and Tibetan translations. The most poignant scenes on the young prince's path to Awakening are the three occasions when he is confronted by the realities of human sickness, old age, and death, while at home he is continuously seduced by the transient charms of the women deployed by his father to keep him from the spiritual path." "A creative artist of the highest order, Ashva-ghosha's aim is not pure entertainment but deep instruction. His mission is to present the Buddha's teaching as itself the culmination of the Brahmanical tradition."--Jacket.Read more...

The Birth of the Lord --
Life in the Ladies' Chambers --
Becoming Dejected --
Rebuffing the Women --
The Departure --
Chándaka is Sent Back --
Entering the Ascetic Grove --
Lamenting in the Seraglio --
Search for the Prince --
Encounter with King Shrenya --
Condemnation of Passion --
The Meeting with Aráda --
Victory Over Mara --
The Awakening.

Abstract:

Presents the Buddha's teaching as the culmination of the Brahmanical traditionRead more...

Reviews

Editorial reviews

Publisher Synopsis

"Published in the geek-chic format."-BookForum "No effort has been spared to make these little volumes as attractive as possible to readers: the paper is of high quality, the typesetting immaculate. The founders of the series are John and Jennifer Clay, and Sanskritists can only thank them for an initiative intended to make the classics of an ancient Indian language accessible to a modern international audience."-The Times Higher Education Supplement "The Clay Sanskrit Library represents one of the most admirable publishing projects now afoot. . . . Anyone who loves the look and feel and heft of books will delight in these elegant little volumes."-New Criterion "Very few collections of Sanskrit deep enough for research are housed anywhere in North America. Now, twenty-five hundred years after the death of Shakyamuni Buddha, the ambitious Clay Sanskrit Library may remedy this state of affairs."-Tricycle "The books line up on my shelf like bright Bodhisattvas ready to take tough questions or keep quiet company. They stake out a vast territory, with works from two millennia in multiple genres: aphorism, lyric, epic, theater, and romance."-Willis G. Regier,The Chronicle ReviewRead more...

<http://www.worldcat.org/title/-/oclc/652536413#Review/2099354589> a
schema:Review ;schema:itemReviewed <http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/652536413> ; # Life of the Buddhaschema:reviewBody ""The Buddhist monk Ashva-ghosha composed his elegant biographical and religious poem in the first or second century CE, probably in the city of Ayodhya. Importantly, this is the earliest extent text of the Sanskrit genre of "literature as a fine art" (kavya)." "Fourteen cantos take the reader from the birth of Siddhartha, the future Buddha, to his Awakening when he discovered the truths of Buddhism. The remainder of the composition, lost in the original Sanskrit, is here summarized from its Chinese and Tibetan translations. The most poignant scenes on the young prince's path to Awakening are the three occasions when he is confronted by the realities of human sickness, old age, and death, while at home he is continuously seduced by the transient charms of the women deployed by his father to keep him from the spiritual path." "A creative artist of the highest order, Ashva-ghosha's aim is not pure entertainment but deep instruction. His mission is to present the Buddha's teaching as itself the culmination of the Brahmanical tradition."--Jacket." ; .